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Salvador TGs Murdered
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Reuters
June 11, 1998
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Seven gay
transvestites have been shot to death in El Salvador in the past
six weeks but police appear little interested in their
investigation, a gay rights activists said Thursday.
A police chief told a local radio station the murders could
be the work of a serial killer but added they were still under
investigation.
"There are seven dead (homosexuals) and one female
prostitute," said William Hernandez, president of a group known
as Between Friends.
He said he regretted the fact police did not seem very keen
to probe the crimes. "No one has even called us," he added.
The body of the latest victim, Santos Cruz, 23, alias
"Lucero," turned up Thursday. He had been killed by a shot to
the head and another to the chest, Hernandez added.
The bodies of the seven dead homosexuals have been found in
or fairly close to the capital San Salvador. Cruz's corpse
turned up in San Luis Talpa, a town 21 miles south of the city.
The drag queen murders began April 26 with the shooting
death of Jose Alexis Barahona, alias "Karla," Hernandez said.
Some 84 tranvestite prostitutes work in 11 areas throughout
the capital of five million people, according to gay rights
group In the Name of the Rose.
Battlin' Dana: Hardhitting Queen?
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Reuters
June 10, 1998
JERUSALEM - Dana International, the Israeli
transsexual who won this year's Eurovision Song Contest, was
charged in court on Monday with assaulting two waitresses.
The singer, who was in court, denied the charges.
Prosecutors allege Dana International pushed one of the
waitresses and threw a bottle of water at another at a
performance at a cafe in November 1995.
"Such an indictment needs to be reexamined," the singer's
lawyer, Shmuel Tsang, told Israeli Army Radio at the
magistrates' court in Rehovot, near Tel Aviv.
Court officials said the trial was expected to begin next
January.
Dana International, born Yaron Cohen, a male, won this
year's Eurovision contest in Britain with the dance tune
"Diva."
Her victory in May sparked an outpouring of support from
gays and lesbians in Israel, some of whom took to the streets of
Tel Aviv to celebrate.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish legislator Shlomo Benizri, who had
protested against Dana International's choice as Israel's
candidate for the competition, called her victory "a sign of
the bankruptcy of Israeli song."
Meanwhile, the head of a rabbinical court ruled that Dana could be counted in a
minyan, the group of 10 men required for Jewish prayer services.
Whoever is born male remains so his entire life, Friday's Maariv
daily quoted Rabbi Eliyahu Abergal as saying.
The sultry winner of this year's Eurovision contest would have
to become religiously observant before qualifying for prayer group,
however, the rabbi said.
Dana International, who had a sex change operation five years
ago, has become a symbol for the increasingly bitter rift between
Israel's secular majority and its ultra-religious minority.
The country's Orthodox establishment has denounced her as an
abomination while secular Israelis embrace her in a sign of
increasing mainstream acceptance of the country's gay community.
It Had To Happen: Virtual Woman Playmate
Contributed by Jamie Faye Fenton
via Associated Press
June 12, 1998
ROME, Italy-Casanovas will be able to hone seduction skills on their computer screens
next week when a "virtual woman," a kind of electronic playmate who
responds to attention like a real woman, goes on the market.
Peruzzo Informatica, the Italian multimedia company marketing the device,
described it as a "Tamagotchi for adults" after the Japanese virtual pet
that became a worldwide fad.
Unlike the Tamagotchi, Rachel the virtual woman lives on a computer
screen. Peruzzo described her as "incredibly charming, passionate,
capricious."
She could be in a bad mood but responded to being sent flowers, would
gradually become closer to her suitor and could even reward him with a
screen striptease.
"There's nothing pornographic about it, it's just a game," a company
spokesman said. Rachel could quickly be clicked away out of sight "so you
can still pretend to be serious at work."
The virtual woman, which is already proving a hit in Germany and the
Netherlands, goes on sale in Italy next week and costs 34,900 lire ($20).
FTM Study: Submissions Sought
Contributed by Susan Raffo
June 15, 1998
Most of us were taught there are only two genders male and female.
We
know this isn't always the case. This dichotomy has excluded those of us
who identify as something other than male or female, or who identify as
both. For those who question this dichotomy, conversations about gender
and sex can go thousands of different directions. Our anthology will
narrow the focus of those conversations and explore a dialogue between
butch dykes and FTM's who previously identified as butch, including those
folks who fall in between or who use different language than the one
being
provided. Having narrowed the focus, we will do what we avoided in the
beginning and go everywhere.
This book is an opportunity to talk about why we identify the way we do,
about why we change identities, and about the search for identity when
the
words being used just don't fit. It is an opportunity to talk about
wanting a penis and not wanting to be a man, about wanting to be a man
and
not wanting a penis, about maleness and masculinity, about sex and
relationships, about communities and conflict, and about finding home.
This is also an invitation to complicate the picture and connect the
dots. To defy separation of identities and talk about gender and class, class
and
desire, desire and disability, disability and culture, culture and
religion, religion and tradition, tradition and race, race and ethnicity,
ethnicity and immigration, immigration and home. 20
Let's talk about being FTM and identifying with dyke community and
culture.
Or being a butch who often gets seen as a man and welcomes that
perception. Let's talk about the tension within lesbian communities
when a
butch begins to identify as transgender are we 'losing our
sisters'?
Let's talk about what it means to identify as a transgendered butch.
Let's
talk about misogyny. And penis envy. And our lovers. Let's talk about
who we are, and who we would like to be. What we look like, and what we
want to look like.
Terry Dickelman and Raquel (Rocki) Sims are looking for works that
include both personal stories and analyses of those personal
experiences.
We welcome non-fiction in a variety of genres, including essays, creative
non-fiction, non-traditional prose, and poetry. We also welcome black
an
d
white photographs and line drawings.
Contact Info:
Terry: Dickelman@aol.com
Rocki: raffo001@tc.umn.edu
Guidelines for submission
Limit of 25 pages for prose (double-spaced)
Limit of 4 pages for poetry.
Manuscripts and photographs will not be returned without an SASE.
Mail submissions to:
Taygetos Consulting/Anthology Submissions
P. O. Box 131797
Roseville, MN 55113
Deadline: Submissions must be received no later than October 15th, 1998.
We encourage all who have a story to tell to submit for this anthology,
regardless of writing experience.
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